Newlywed Jarretta Hamilton, an elementary school teacher in her late 30s at Southland Christian School in Florida, went to her supervisors last year to be congratulated on her pregnancy and request maternity leave. But things took an unexpected turn when administrators asked just when, exactly, did she conceive? Refusing to bear false witnesses, Hamilton admitted to the prying busybodies that she had become pregnant three weeks before her wedding day.

In response, Hamilton was fired for engaging in “fornication.” Conveniently, this also meant that the school was off the hook for paying maternity leave. Then, in an added insult and violation of Hamilton’s privacy, her premarital conception was made public to others in the school and parents.

A letter explained the school administrators’ supposed rationale for the firing: “as a leader before our students we require all teachers to maintain and communicate the values and purpose of our school.” Fornication, of course, is not one of those values. Yet given that Hamilton conceived a mere three weeks before her wedding day, it would be impossible to claim that it was visibly obvious that she’d become pregnant outside of marriage. In fact, if they were concerned about the image and values being communicated, they would have given Hamilton maternity leave and not broadcast the length of her pregnancy to the entire community.

Hamilton is now suing for compensation for both her lost job and the emotional distress of being humiliated before the entire school. The invasion of a woman’s private life and high-handed moralizing makes me gag. And while the courts while decide whether legally this private religious school had the right to discriminate against Hamilton based on her marital status, morally I’d put Southland Christian School squarely in the wrong.

What Would Jesus Do? I imagine the mother of Jesus would also have been fired for fornication. The hypocrisy and self-serving attitude just sickens me!